richards



(No Model.)

F. H. RICHARDS.

PLANER TABLE DRIVING MECHANISM.

15104323208. Patented J-u1y28, 1885.

Witnesses;

40. mm M N. PETERi PMb-Lhhognphar. Wnhington, D, C.

UNTTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANCIS I-I. RICHARDS, OF SPRINGFIELD, MASS, ASSIGNOR TO THE PRATT .85 WHITNEY COMPANY, OF HARTFORD, CONN.

PLANER-TABLE-DRIVING MECHANISM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 323,208, dated July 28,1885.

Application filed March 16, 1895. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l, FRANCIS H. RICHARDS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Springfield, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Planer-Table- Driving Mechanism, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof, in which Figure 1 is a plan view ofa driving mechanism embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is an elevation of one side of the same. Fig. 3 is a similar elevation of the opposite side.

Similar characters designate the same parts in all the figures.

This invention relates more especially to mechanism for operating the tables of metal planer-s, although it is equally applicable to other machines having similar movements.

The object of the invention is to furnish an improved two-belted mechanism for driving the planer-table in opposite directions with different velocities, while maintaining substantially the equality of the belt-speeds.

To this end myinvention consistsin the combinations hereinafter described and claimed.

It will be remembered that heretofore the practice has been very general of reverselyoperating planer-tables by means of two belts running at different velocities and acting alternately on the same pulley or on similar pulleys on the same shaft, the slow-running belt acting to drive the table forward to make the cut, and the fast-running one driving the table back again ready to begin another cut. As the time occupied in running back the table is not directly productive of useful work, considerations of economy have led the builders to hasten that operation very much more than formerly, so that it is now common to find planer-tables running back four or more times as fast as they are run forward. Since the work of making the cut is wholly performed during the forward stroke, the power required to make this stroke of the table, plus that required to make the cut, is, in practice, found to be about the same as that required to drive the table back at a much greater speed, so that with a suitable arrangement of driving mechanism the two belts used may be of substantially the same size and condition and have about the same running velocities. My present invention furnishes an arrangement whereby these conditions are met. This arrangement comprises a train of gearing through which the power is transmitted from the belts to the table, which train is, in effect, a longer one for the purpose of running the table forward than for running it backward, so that the re quired variation in the velocity of the table is produced by that difference in the length of said train without necessitating a difference in the belt-velocities. 6

In the drawings, A designates a part of the bed of an ordinary metal planer.

B is a part of the planer-table, fitted to the bed in the usual manner, and provided with a rack, R, meshing with gear-wheel G. This is the intermediate gear usually placed between said rack and the aforesaid train of gearing to transmit the power from the last pinion of the train to the table. Said gearwheel is carried by a shaft, S, which is sup 7 5 ported in bearings formed in the frame.

S designates the usual continuously-revolving over-head counter-shaft, having pulleys M N, from which run the planer-driving belts. The hangers for supporting this shaft 86 and the means for driving it are not shown, as they are or may be of the ordinary description.

Supported in bearings formed in or attached to the bed is placed a series of shafts, 2, 3, and 4, provided, respectively, with pinions 5, 6, and 7. Of these, pinion 5 gears with spurwheel 8, fixed on shaft 3, pinion 6 with spurwheel 9, fixed on shaft 4, and pinion '7 with the aforesaid gear-wheel G. The first two shafts, 2 and 3, are simultaneously reversely operated-that is, in whichever direction one of them runs the other always runs in the opposite direction at the same time, each shaft being operated in either direction alternately.

Shaft 2 is furnished with-a pair of ordinary tight and loose pulleys, 11 and 12, and shaft 3 with a similar pair, 13 and 14. The first pair are belted by belt 15 to pulleyM, and the second by belt16 to pulley N on shaft S ICQ These belts are similarly disposed on their respective pulleysthat is, they are both either open or crossed, 7 as the case may be; and hence, as will be obvious, they must turn the driven pulley in the same direction. For convenience in arranging the gearing, one pair of the pulleys is placed on either side of the bed, and to facilitate shipping the belts the loose pulleys are placed outside (they might be placed inside) of the tight pulleys, but not one outside and one inside, as would be possible by using an independent shipping mechanism for each belt.

R is a shipping-rod, having arms 17 and 18, which guide, respectively, bolts 15 and 16. lhe construction and arrangement of these parts and the pulleys are such that in operating the machine one belt will be guided onto its loose pulley just as or just before the other belt is guided onto its tight pulley, this being the usual method of operating the belts of two-belted machines of this class.

The beltshipping devices for operating rod R from stops on the table I have not shown in the drawings, because those devices form no part of my presentinvention, and because any of the usual kinds thereof may be employed for that purpose.

For the purpose of running the table forward, shaft 2 is the first shaft of the train of gearing, while for the purpose of running the table backward shaft 3 is the first one of said train, shaft 2 being then run idle from shaft 3. By means of these improvements the excessive friction of the backwardly-driving belt, as it is usually run, is avoided; also the very large counter-shaft pulley necessary for driving that belt. Furthermore, the lesser speed of said belt reduces the shock to the gearing caused by the reversal of the motion thereof.

The operation of the mechanism will be understood fromthe drawings and the pre ceding description, being the same as the operation of the ordinary planer-tabledriving devices, with the exception that the belts, pulleys, and gearing act in the manner hereinbefore explained.

Having thus described my invention, I claim- 1. The coinbination,with aplaner-table and with a continuously-revolving shaft, of apair of reversely-operated shafts, a pair of pulleys, tight and loose, on each of said shafts, a pair of similarly-disposed belts from the continuously-revolving shaft to said pulleys, gearing between said reversely-operating shafts, and gearing between the second of these shafts and the planer-table, substantially as set forth.

2. The combination, in a planertable-driving mechanism, of shaft S having pulleys M N, shafts 2 and 3, pulleys 11, 12, and 13, 14, gears 5 and 8, and belts 15 and 16, substantiall y as described.

FRANCIS H. RICHARDS.

Vitnesses:

S. W. PowEL, R. L. PECK. 

